“'Go, wash in the pool of Siloam’ (which means sent).”

The healing stories of Jesus are what some scholars call thick stories – thick with meanings. For the most part we think of the primary meaning as the literal healing, and the secondary meaning as the hidden symbolic meanings. I have come to understand the primary and secondary meanings quite the other way around. I see the primary meaning found in the shadows and the ambiguities of the story. Good stories, the ones we read more than once, both disclose and hide their significance for us. The hidden is meant to lure us into discovering the meaning for ourselves. The meaning is embodied in the form of the story, which expresses beliefs about life lived in the presence of God. The primary meaning in a healing story is found where we examine the meaning for our selves. This is not a story about someone else’s healing; it is about our healing.

What is it that we are supposed to learn for ourselves from this story? (That is a good question to use with every bit of Bible study that you do. “What is it that we are supposed to learn for ourselves from this story?” An obvious meaning is trust. The man trusted and went and washed. Trust and faithful obedience to Jesus’ command led to healing. First there is trust. The story is Also thick with these meanings: (1) the man is blind from birth, (2) he is ordered to go to the pool of Siloam which means sent, (3) and this takes place on the Sabbath.

“... A man blind form birth.” The disciples had seen Jesus, so had the religious officials of his time. Each could claim their own insights because they had seen him. But, it is a person blind from birth who is given the vision to perceive Jesus as his Savior, and to worship him. The blind man is an example for us, the later disciples. We too are blind from birth; we have not seen him. Our lack of love, our inability to forgive, our self-serving indulgence, our lack of grace and faith - these all are witnesses of our blindness, our inability to see. This is a story about how we, who have never seen his face, come to understand the mystery of Jesus’ presence in the world, and how we see Him, obey, and worship. That man’s blindness is our blindness.

“‘Go, wash in the pool of Siloam’ (which means sent).” The Greek word for sent is one of the hidden messages here. It is the word apostle. Apostle means one who is sent. Jesus anointed the sightless eyes, and told him to go wash in the Pool of Apostleship; and when he did this, he saw. The Apostolic mission is the source from which the darkness of the world can gain light and sight. The significance is that when we are sent to do ministry, to serve, to reconcile and heal our eyes are opened to see Jesus. Being sent to serve others washes our eyes, gives us sight.

In the healing story we are told that “They kept asking him, ‘then how were your eyes opened?’” His answer was that he was told to go to the Pool of Siloam and wash. He said, “...I went and washed and received my sight.” That there is a connection here between washing and baptism, there is no question. There is also no question that this story wants us to understand that what washes us are the things that Jesus sends us out to do.

The last element of this story is that it takes place on the Sabbath. “The Pharisees said, ‘This man is not from God, for he does not observe the Sabbath. How can a man who is a sinner perform such signs?’” The significance of the healing on the Sabbath is that when we take our mission of being sent out to minister, not only are our eyes opened to see, but so are the eyes of the women and men all around us. When they witness what happens with our love and faith in Jesus, their eyes are opened to see God too. To paraphrase a much loved prayer, the prayer of St. Francis: where ever people see God at work, where his love removes hatred, his pardon heals injury, his union absolves discord, his faith answers doubt, his hope conquers despair, his light illuminates the darkness, and his joy fills our sadness, this is true Sabbath. We make Sabbath rest when we are sent out to do Jesus’ ministry. Sabbath happens wherever Jesus is seen.

Amen.